Free Destined by Sophia Sharp

he viciously ripped out her throat, sucking in the warm, sweet blood.
    She was back at school. Sitting in class with al the other students; with al her friends. She was happy to be here, in the safety afforded by her home town. Although she had an uncomfortable inkling in the back of her mind that something was slightly off…
    but couldn’t place her finger on it. She shrugged it off, and listened to the teacher in front of her lecture on about something indistinctive. Happily, she looked around her. The sun was shining through the windows, and it was bright outside. Too bright, in fact. With a start, she realized that she had trouble adjusting her eyes. The light was getting brighter, and she could see less and less. She started to panic, sweeping her eyes from one side of the room to the other, trying to catch something, anything, but al that was left was pure white. Al she could see was pure white.
    She was blind. Breathing hard, she heard the scraping of chairs and desks around her. What was happening? She heard people starting to move, and wanted desperately to see where. She tried to push her chair back to get up, but hit something hard. She turned back, momentarily forgetting she couldn’t see. A sinister laugh greeted her. “You’re not going anywhere, darling,” somebody whispered in her ear in a raspy voice. Suddenly a hundred different hands grabbed hold of her limbs. She struggled against them, but they stayed on with an iron grip. She felt herself being picked up, and carried away, while laughter spread throughout the room. She flailed her body, unable to see what was happening. She was panicking, but it was no use. Abruptly she was thrown down, into something that felt… confined. Her hands reached out, but found only a hard, metal surface. She wanted to push herself up, but something hit her hard against her head. She fel back down. Desperately, she reached around her, but her hands Desperately, she reached around her, but her hands only found that same confined metal surface. She could feel the edges of the planes. With terror, she realized she was in some kind of bound container. Above, behind, under, and al around was that same terrible metal. She could feel al six sides of the container cramping against her, pushing into her. They pulsed as if alive, and Laura screamed. She was blind, and bound in a smal chest.
    Laura woke with a start, breathing heavily and wide-eyed. When she realized she could make out her surroundings, relief flooded over her. Instinctual y, she spread her arms to test the boundaries of that box… and realized there was none. It had just been a dream.
    A shiver ran down her spine. She knew she had been having nightmares before, but these were the first she could remember. They started soon after she had gotten out of the caves, with Logan. Who had now abandoned her only hours ago.
    Instead of feeling sadness or anger over that thought, she felt… a hunger. And she knew it for what it was. Forceful y, she thrust it down, wil ing herself to be strong enough not to be succumbed by it. Alexander believed in her. With al the uncertainty about what was going to happen next, giving way to the vampire urge would be the worst thing she could do.
    Alexander appeared in front of her, startling her momentarily. She didn’t like being so jumpy, but those nightmares had her on edge.
    “Morning,” he said, “I trust you got a decent night’s sleep?”
    “Yes,” Laura lied. “I’m already feeling better than yesterday.”
    “Good. We’l travel hard today, then.”
    “Do you know how long it wil take us to reach…
    the archive?”
    Alexander thought for a minute. “Truth be told, we’re not that far. If you could run as fast as you wil one day, we’d be there by nightfal . As it is, I think we can get there within two days.”
    “Two days,” Laura said thoughtful y. Then she pushed herself up, determined to show that they could beat that time. If it was a way she could prove